


It's Stupid, Really

by dyingpoet



Series: Javid one shots [8]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Anxiety, Canon Era, Fluff, M/M, Romantic Fluff, THIS IS SOFT OKAY, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 06:20:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20130754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyingpoet/pseuds/dyingpoet
Summary: Jack thinks Davey's been acting weird and Davey thinks he might die of embarrassment if Jack finds out why





	It's Stupid, Really

**Author's Note:**

> done for a commission for @tellthosewithpowersafeintower on tumblr!!! hope u like it bb!!!

“Davey?”

Davey hummed as he skimmed the headline article, glancing over the front page to see Les shifting in front of him. “Yes?”

“Jack uh,” Les started, faltering when he looked over his shoulder at something before looking back at Davey, “Jack wants to know why you’re actin’ weird.”

Rolling his eyes, Davey looked over his brother to see Jack leaning against the distribution gate, mock innocence written across his face. “Does he?”

He cut off a portion of their papers and handed them to Les, telling him to stay on the block while Davey talked to Jack. The aforementioned cocked an eyebrow lazily as Davey walked up.

“Found a messenger I see,” Davey said, trying his best to keep his voice even because he  _ was  _ uncomfortable. 

“Figured you couldn’t shoot that one.”

Jack’s voice came smoothly and easily and Davey shifted uncomfortably a few feet away from him. He should’ve known Jack was incapable of letting anything go.

When it became clear Davey wasn’t going to say anything, Jack cleared his throat. “So?”

“So what?” Davey asked, playing dumb and playing with the soft edges of the paper, ink starting to get on his hands. 

“ _ So _ ,” Jack drawled, getting off the wall and taking a step closer to Davey, “why are ya actin’ weird? Ever since Monday you’se been avoidin’ me just like when you and Les first started sellin’.”

Jack had this sort of alley cat way about him; all long drawn out sentences and lazy movements that kept you invested in everything he had to say without him seeming to notice at all, but Davey saw through it right then. Jack looked hurt and more than a little confused, which honestly was fair.

Guilt washed over Davey, and he bit his lip as he tried to come up with the most painless way to tell Jack what was bothering him. If it wasn’t mortifyingly embarrassing this wouldn’t even be a problem. 

Jack waited calmly for Davey to speak, which only made Davey  _ more  _ anxious because Jack was being so nice about this. And god, he probably thought  _ he  _ did something wrong because Davey was too much of a mess to ever just say something outright. 

There was a hand on his shoulder then and Davey was so happy he didn’t flinch it off for once. Jack was looking at him with a knitted brow and Davey realized he was definitely starting to hyperventilate.

“Woah, Davey hey it’s okay,” Jack said softly, rubbing small circles into the muscle of Davey’s shoulder, which was so incredibly tense and Davey hated himself for it. “I didn’t mean to spring anything on ya, we can talk later, okay? After you have time to figure out whatever you wanna say?”

Davey nodded and really did feel like crying because Jack was being _ so nice _ and he didn’t even do anything wrong. This was all on Davey. 

“Yeah okay,” Davey said finally, letting out a breath and trying to get his breathing back to normal. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Jack said, a lazy grin overtaking his features as he shoved playfully at Davey’s shoulder. “Now go find Les before one of the others kidnaps him.”

Davey forced a laugh and turned away from Jack and started down the block. Eight hours. He could figure out how to have a two minute conversation in two hours, right?

He shook his head a little to try and shake off the anxiousness. Maybe he should practice on Les.

* * *

Davey was pacing a hole in the floor. Well, roof technically but still, he was pacing and he was nervous and he needed to get this over with or he’d explode from the suspension of it all. God he was so stupid, Jack probably wouldn’t even care. Shit, what if Jack thought he was being stupid, made fun of him?

He managed to chalk that particular one up to nerves just as Jack’s head popped up over the edge of the roof, and he didn’t miss the tired groan that left him as he pulled himself up.

“You okay, Jack?”

Jack waved him off and yawned pretty big as he did. “Yeah, just tired s’all. Don’t worry ‘bout me, I’m worryin’ enough for the both of us.”

Davey felt the guilt again and he fought to keep from staring at his feet. “I’m sorry about that Jack, it’s really not your fault.”

Jack hummed and shrugged noncommittally. “Can’t really know that for sure ‘til you tell me what it is, can I?”

Davey nodded and cleared his throat. Just get it over with. “Okay, it’s really not a big deal, honestly. But uh, I guess I’m just not that used to affection and that sort of thing and the other night I just didn’t know what to do when we were together and I freaked out, I guess.”

That whole monologue came out in one huge breath, and fast too, Davey took a deep breath to recover before he looked at Jack again. He probably thought he was stupid. He was definitely stupid.

But when he did look at Jack, expecting anything from confusion to mockery, he was taken aback from the look of  _ relief  _ written on his face. 

“Fuck, that was all it was?” Jack asked, and a whole level of tension that Davey didn’t even know was there dropped and Jack smiled genuinely at him. “I thought you was cuttin’ out on me or somethin’, like maybe I was feeling somethin’ that you weren’t between us.”

“Oh  _ god  _ no,” Davey rushed out, “nothing like that, seriously.”

“Thank god.”

Davey was happy Jack felt better about the whole thing, but he had yet to address what Davey had actually been anxious about and if he didn’t soon Davey might just jump off the roof.

“So you just ain’t used to gettin’ touched? Somethin’ like that?”

Thank god, Davey thought, nodding stiffly. God this was uncomfortable. “Something like that.”

“But you don’t not like it, right?”

“Oh, uh, no it’s uh, it’s good, I guess,” Davey stammered, feeling a blush crawl up his neck as Jack tilted his head at him while he struggled. “It’s fine.”

Jack clapped his hands then and Davey, still a bundle of nerves, almost jumped a foot clear in the air. “Good then, easy problem to fix.”

“You’ve lost me.”

Walking over, Jack slung an arm around Davey’s shoulder and let him to the pile of blankets and pillows he kept up on the roof for Crutchie or whoever else needed it. “You just gotta  _ get  _ used to it. And you got me, the best teacher if I do say so myself.”

Davey was a mess as he and Jack sat down, backs against the wall of the roof, barely able to hold onto what Jack was saying because this was not how he expected this conversation to go. This was the best case scenario, he supposed, which is why it didn’t make sense that he was still so nervous.

“Tell me if it gets too much,” Jack said quielty, tangling his legs with Davey’s and playing absentmindedly with his fingers. He started to talk about his day, about Medda and the new backdrop he was painting and it was all so  _ normal _ . 

Davey was still nervous but absolutely melting into Jack’s touch and voice, and even if he was a little stiff Jack didn’t say anything.

After a while Davey’s eyes started to feel heavy despite the rest of his body being wide awake, and he was happy he and Les already had planned to spend the night. Jack must have noticed the way he was leaning into him a bit more, something Davey was extremely aware of himself, because he stopped talking and looked at Davey.

“Can we lie down? I’m gonna pass out soon.”

It was all for Davey’s benefit and he knew it, so he nodded, yawning as soon as Jack mentioned sleep. 

Jack, he realized a long time ago, always wanted contact. He always had an arm around someone’s shoulders or his legs sprawled out across somebody else. His affection extended to all of them, which was why Davey wasn’t surprised when Jack immediately curled up to Davey’s side once both of them laid down.

Peeking up from where half of his face was buried in Davey’s shirt, he said quietly, “Is this okay?”

Davey swallowed pointedly and nodded again, because it really was, and tried to relax as Jack threw an arm across his chest and had his head resting on Davey’s arm. His breathing was already evening out, he wasn’t lying about being tired, and Davey let warmth overtake him while he watched Jack fall asleep.

He wasn’t sure which of them fell asleep first, but their breathing had aligned. He remembered making note of that.

* * *

Davey woke up before Jack, and probably, he thought as he struggled to make out the outline of the roof around him, before anyone else. It was definitely still the middle of the night, and Davey’s head was foggy and he shifted in the dark to try and pull more blanket over him.

When he did, there was a sound of surprise, and Jack lifted his head and squinted at Davey, still clutching the blanket Davey tried to pull away.

“Wha’ time’s it?” he asked, voice thick with sleep as he looked around the roof. “Why’re you awake?”

Davey shook his had and laid back down, feeling Jack follow him. “Didn’t mean to.”

“Oh, good,” Jack said, and he was definitely falling back asleep because it was almost impossible for Davey to hear him. “Thought it was ‘cause of me.”

Even in his half awake state, Davey felt a pang in his chest at that, and so while his inhibitions were low and he was extremely close to unconsciousness again, he wrapped an arm around Jack and pulled him into his chest. 

“Wasn’t,” he mumbled into his hair, and he just barely heard Jack let out a breath in response before falling back asleep. “Love ya, Jack.”

Davey smiled a second later as sleep pulled him back under. There, he said it.

* * *

“Wake up, Dave.”

Someone was shaking Davey and he swatted blindly at them to make it stop.

“Davey.”

They shook his shoulder, harder this time, and Davey let out a pained groan before rolling over and slitting his eyes open. “What?”

It was Jack smirking down at him, hair sticking up every which way and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and Davey sat up clumsily.

“Damn, that was the best sleep I’ve had in a while,” Jack said as Davey cracked his back. “What about you? Was that okay?”

Davey almost laughed because it sounded like Jack was talking about them sleeping together when really they just  _ literally  _ sleep together. But Jack looked hopeful and cautious at the same time, like he really needed Davey to be okay, so Davey didn’t laugh. He nodded instead and smiled lazily at the other boy.

“Yeah, it was.”

Jack beamed and staggered to stand up, holding a hand down to Davey who took it gingerly and stood up himself. “We got a little time before the bell rings still.”

Davey raised his eyebrows. “You up before the bell? Never heard of that before.”

“Yeah well I woke up with a pretty good lookin’ guy next to me, made it hard to go back to sleep, y’know?”

Jack laughed when Davey blushed to his scalp and brought a hand up to rake anxiously through his hair. “Shut up.”

He just got a clap on his shoulder and another grin from Jack. “Compliments are the next lesson, because I’m givin’ out a lot of ‘em here and I ain’t seein’ ‘em gettin’ received awful well.”

Davey stuttered for a moment before shaking Jack off and starting for the ladder. “You’re mean.”

“I’m right is what I am!” Jack called as Davey started down the ladder. “And I ain’t jokin’ either, get used to it Jacobs!”

**Author's Note:**

> this is the softness i need in my life but ig jack and davey can have it instead ig
> 
> kudos/comments give me life!!! please!!!!


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